2026 Elixir Red from Forest Hill

Exceptionally smooth and well integrated, this Sri Lankan black tea offers honey, malt, and brown sugar notes in a medium body. The dry leaf is rich with slightly winey aromatics, while the wet leaf reveals rose and malt. The liquor is remarkably clean and balanced. This is a rare and creative tea from Buddika Dissanayake, master tea maker at Forest Hill and a member of CATA (Ceylon Artisanal Tea Association). Buddika spent six months developing this microbially fermented black tea, applying traditional Chinese fermentation methods to Sri Lankan leaves. Half the tea comes from wild trees at Warnagala, an estate abandoned over 130 years ago at the foot of Adam's Peak, where the tea trees have grown 30 feet tall into the rainforest. The other half comes from abandoned tea trees along the forest edge. Buddika carefully controls the two-day fermentation, monitoring temperature and humidity. The result is a tea designed to age well but also incredibly smooth to drink right now. CATA represents a new generation of Sri Lankan tea makers moving beyond the island's commodity tea production to create truly artisanal, small-batch teas. This is one of the first batches of Elixir Red available in the world. It brews well western style, but gong fu preparation really brings out the nuances, which is how Buddika designed it to be enjoyed. Produced January 2026. No pesticides or herbicides were used to produce this tea.